This invention relates to vending machines, and more specifically to the type of vending machines found on jobsites capable of distributing pastries, small snack items and beverages.
Conventional vending machines for pastries, candy bars, soda cans and other snack products must be able to hold a substantial inventory of goods so that they do not need to be serviced too often. Accordingly, they tend to be bulky and heavy and occupy about a square meter (10 square feet) of floor space, with a height of almost 2 meters (72 inches).
The reloading of such a machine is time consuming since items must be inserted one by one, and inventory of unsold items must be checked for expiration date, and, occasionally, replaced. Cash must then be collected and counted by the servicing employee. The good-holding stations must be cleaned of all oil and grease that may have oozed out of the packaged goods. These cumbersome procedures are time-consuming, labor intensive, and sometimes give occasion for pilferage and theft.
Conventional machines are not well-adapted to small job sites having 150 employees or less, because the profit generated at such a small site can not justify the labor cost of servicing the machines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,649 Fellner et al. offers a partial solution to the above-mentioned problems by the use of a removable and replaceable magazine for the goods which can be loaded in the factory then used to replace an empty magazine or partially empty one. However, this type of magazine is relatively inefficient since it can hold only one item of goods in each location. Moreover, the coins need still be collected and counted on site. The same type of shortcomings characterize the vending machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. RE. 32,115 Lockwood et al. which uses a drum carousel to hold the goods to be sold. Although an empty carousel could be removed and replaced by a fully loaded one, each carousel station can only hold one item, and the cash must be handled separately. The inefficient designs of the above-devices inevitably leads to bulky vending machines which are not suitable for small locations.
The instant invention results from an attempt to palliate these various shortcomings.
The principal and secondary objects of this invention are to substantially reduce the time and expense involved in the refilling and maintenance of vending machines distributed at a plurality of locations over a given period, to reduce any losses due to pilferage of goods or conversion of payment currency by maintenance personnel, and reduce the health hazard occasioned by spillage of beverage and food items within the vending machines.
These and other valuable objects are achieved by the use of compact vending machines in which all the dispensable goods are held within a removable and substitutable magazine. Sets of magazines are filled in a central location then delivered to a plurality of vending machines along a predetermined route. At each location, the servicing of the machine consists essentially in opening the machine, removing the previously installed magazine, installing a fresh new magazine, and securing the vending machine in the absence of any other maintenance counting or inventory-taking of remaining goods, item by item or counting of any collected currency. Payments are made through debit cards sold by the vending machine operators to owners of locations for distribution to their employees and customers. Payments can also be made by currency which, once deposited into the machine, are securely accumulated within the magazines and can only be retrieved at the central location with use of a special key. The selection of desired goods and payment therefor can also be made through wireless communication with a cell-phone or other hand-held device. At certain locations, combinations of beverage and snack food item vending machines work together to deliver specially advertised combinations obtainable at a discount price. Magazines returned to the central location are emptied of any unsold goods and collected currency, cleaned, sanitized adn refilled with fresh goods before being assigned to a route for distribution to a new location.
The machine is opened by means of a chip-mounting, also called xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d card. Upon opening, the machine automatically xe2x80x9cdown-loadsxe2x80x9d on the card, an account of all the sales that occurred since the last service call, including the amount of currency accumulated in the coin box. The card is returned along with the removed magazine to the distribution center where it is used to verify the integrity of the returned components and thus, deters pilferage by the service personnel.